Second Chances
by macDhai
Summary: AU response to PennyForTheGuy's The Art of Seduction: Kael'thas. Actually trying to be a real story, probably OOC, but it was Fluff... and has turned more serious. Sex, violence, death, all starting with chapt. 3
1. The Art of Seduction by Lady Blaze

**Second Chances**

By Rillan macDhai

Inspired by "The Art of Seduction, by Kael'thas Sunstrider" by PennyForTheGuy

Please at least take a look at TheGuy's story, so you have a clue how this got started …

Copyright 2010 by Rillan macDhai except for the parts owned by PennyForTheGuy and Blizzard, and TSR or whoever owns AD&D these days. Guest appearances by Jaina and Arthas and possibly others I don't normally mention in my Warcraft stories…. Lady Blaze is c/o 1996? By Rillan macDhai. Sex and lots of references to the real world and bad language, not quite Urban Fantasy, but going in that direction….

Well, since I hate no-win scenarios as any of you who've read my non-Warcraft story "Reboot" would know, it was certain I would eventually be drawn to Kael'thas for a tale of sex, love, redemption, and the battle against the Burning Legion, and Arthas-bashing. Oh, and did I mention sex? Reviewers, please bring your Mary-Sue bats and smack me if I let this get too hokey, I usually avoid the Named characters of WoW, in part for the very reason they are so powerful… though I really don't know why I'm worrying, this was supposed to be fluff... okay the fluff got sapped by one of my rogues and this is running as a full-on story. I guess we'll know when we get there...

Complicating this, is that I'm not up on all the lore, so I might make some terrible gaffes, Please **Do** Poke me about them by leaving reviews or emails

LINE BREAK

Part One

The Art of Seduction, by the Lady Blaze, Worldwalker

By Rillan macDhai

I'd reached Dalaran, thank the gods and found the one I was seeking by the simple expedient of stumbling across the two people he was unfortunately drawn to follow. I'd been site seeing, wondering when the archmages were going to get around to noticing me, though I imagined them in council even then, trying to decide who was high enough on their shit-list to be potentially sacrificed by contacting me, I just hoped it wasn't Rhonin. Better they think I was some sort of terrible threat than the truth I was here desperately trying to find help.

I was near the Violet Citadel, actually looking at the beautiful blue flowering vines when I saw Jaina Proudmoore, younger than I knew her, but unmistakable. And with her was Arthas. Blonde as a California surfer dude, thankfully looking more like the TokyoPop version of himself than the round-faced farm boy version in the game, but still that actually made it worse, I'm kept expecting him to go into 'crazy face' mode like in the first few pages of **Death Knight** . . .

I know I hissed at him like an angry cat, fortunately no one else was close enough to hear me. Or so I'd thought at the time. "Poor damned Prince of Lordaeron, how I wish I could just drop you in a hole and forget about you," I muttered and spun around to leave, crashing straight into the man I'd come here to find.

He caught me, steadied me, and I looked up to see him as he truly was, not the pale imitation I'd glimpsed through the computer screen. I'd been studying the high elves since I'd arrived, so I was at least a bit prepared. His beauty still struck me speechless. That and the unmistakable reaction my body had to him.

"Lady?" he asked uncertainty tingeing his voice. He knew I recognized him; he was trying to decide if he should know me as well. I remember thinking he wasn't that much taller than me I shut my mouth and nodded, "Prince Sunstrider. Excuse me, I didn't mean to crash into you."

"No one ever uses my House name," he said in soft amazement, obviously startled. "Excuse me instead, it was rather obvious you didn't know I was there. I shouldn't have stood so close."

His eyes were free of fel. It was so wonderful just to see that, to see him without the tension and stress that marred his features and without that damning green. Right now, he was obviously burning with curiosity, though even with his hands still on my arms, his gaze had flickered to Jaina and that man before returning to me.

Releasing my arms, he'd taken a step back, asking, "I know why I don't like him, but what has Arthas Menethil done to you to provoke such a reaction? You don't sound like you're from Lordaeron - ?"

"No," I gave him a wry smile. "I'm from somewhere a bit farther away than that, my lord Prince. And my problems with the Prince of Lordaeron are too long a list to trouble you with."

"Would you indulge an apprentice and walk with me, lady mage?"

"I would be honored, my lord mage." I told him, pleased to catch the slight widening of his eyes at _that_ title. Even though I was sure part of the reason he asked was simply to let Jaina see him with someone else, a _female_ someone else, I was glad for the opportunity to continue talking with him away from the others.

_Away from the rest of the Council_, I suddenly remembered. Apprentice! Ha! Kael, despite his 'vain playboy' image, was one of the shadowy six who ruled Dalaran. I wondered if he'd ever heard of Bruce Wayne. I'd also wondered how to pique his interest, if I was to save him and his people. And maybe save my world, if we were both very lucky and the Fates' smiled. It seemed the 'how to be interesting' part was as simple as just being in Dalaran and being what I am.

I noticed he was guiding me away from the more traveled parts of the city, out toward the lake. I'd left my robe-cloak and non-essential gear in my room at the Legerdemain, along with my staff. I wasn't worried about anyone messing with it just yet and I could defend myself with blade and dagger if I had to, but I didn't think things would come to battle. They would be too curious about me at first, but I knew it could easily go either way once they started figuring things out. It really didn't matter as long as I made myself memorable to Kael without ending up in a cell in the Violet Hold. I wasn't certain I'd be able to summon my staff or portal out of _that_ place, since it was designed to hold renegade mages after all.

"So, Lady -?" he asked, as we paused on a terrace overlooking the lower city of Dalaran, where the lesser mages and apprentices and normal people lived. There was a clear view of Lordamere Lake in the distance. It reminded me of Erie and Huron, a huge inland ocean. Broken sunlight and purple clouds, like Daralan's lesser-known symbol, floated above the lake. Which reminded me of the Council again.

"Blaze," I told him. It was sort of my unofficial battle name, culled from an old superhero game I'd once played, back when I was only starting to realize what was going on in the world, my world.

"Lady Blaze." He smiled, attention fully on me, as though I were the most interesting person he'd ever met. I'd been in the costume call at a science fiction and fantasy convention in Washington D.C. once, where Mike Jittlov the filmmaker had been one of the judges. I'd met his eyes in the middle of my turn on stage and just frozen in amazement and shock, everything completely gone from my mind. Kael had just done the same thing to me.

His eyes were dark like star sapphires, with the transparency of a regular sapphire or some poetic nonsense like that. They widened in surprise and shock, then he dropped his head down and kissed me, arms tightening around me, half lifting me off my feet, my own around his back, both of us locked in a hungry, primal kiss that set fire to the blood burning heat in my lower belly. We were gasping when we finally broke the kiss, neither of us letting go of the other.

"What -?" he protested, still looking down at me. "Lady, I –" he set me down. "I have no idea what came over me. I do profoundly beg your pardon once again," he dropped to one knee, obviously in shock, still babbling apologies. I wasn't much better, trembling with the unexpected reaction, my hands still on his arms.

And that's when Jaina came around the corner.

I was still gasping in air, my heart hammering as though I'd just sprinted the length of the city and somehow the movement of her arrival caught the corner of my eye. Was it Antonidas, sending his apprentice to keep an eye on Kael and I or just happenstance? Either way, Jaina looked like I'd just smacked her in the face with a flounder.

"Go away!" I mouthed at her and she ducked back out of sight like a scalded cat. Kael missed it entirely, still wheezing himself and trying to apologize. I dropped down to put myself on a level with him and because I didn't think I could stand much longer. With very little more provocation I would just crawl on top of him and take him in the street. His eyes held a wild look that said his own thoughts weren't far away from mine, though he was trying desperately to salvage his dignity and restrain himself.

I finally pulled myself away from him entirely and sat there shaking. "What in the Nine Hells was that?" I asked rhetorically. It was clear he had no more idea than I did.

"What? Where?" he asked, still confused. "I have no idea. I'm, I'm not like this –"

"It's alright, Kael. I know you're not." _Maybe if you had been, Jaina would have been yours,_ the thought swept in, unbidden. My use of his more intimate name seemed to sober him a bit.

"What are you?" he asked me bluntly, all pretense stripped away.

"Human. Mortal. Just as shocked as you are by what just happened. And you don't have to apologize, I'm not some fainting fair princess, Prince Kael'thas, even if you are the most beautiful man I've ever seen."

"You're a mage," he said, huddling around his drawn up knees, seeming completely unaware he was still sitting on the ground with me. "But I've never seen anything like the mix of magicks you have around you."

"I would imagine not," I said. I summoned, pulling, and my staff clapped into my hand. I used it to get back into my feet and wrapped myself around it, much as Kael had been hugging his knees. Across from me, he hastily picked himself up, flicking off dirt and settling his robes, completely unaware he was even doing it as he resumed his immaculate appearance. I tried not to watch him closely, grounding the excess random energy and magicks through my staff and into the terrace, through the stone of the terrace down until I could feed it into the good solid earth, bracing in case things suddenly all went south. "I'm mostly self-taught, it makes for a lot of diversity."

I could finally breathe again without gasping and, if I was careful not to look directly at him, didn't feel an immediate need to rip all of his clothes off and mount him. What the hell had happened between us? I already _had_ a Chosen . . . though that mostly meant we were secure enough with each other we didn't worry about the other straying too far. It didn't mean we couldn't sample other wares, just that we'd always come home again… I wondered what _his_ reaction to Kael would be…

"I've heard the Kirin Tor will teach any human with talent. Is that still true?"

"Mmm," he said. "That depends on what you want learn."

"How to make portal stones," I said firmly and let myself watch his expression change. "And the whole theory behind portals, 'cause I know just enough to know what you're doing and what I do are two very different approaches."

"And that would be?"

"I'll show you how I do it at some point, but not right now. I don't have to have a precisely set point on the arrival end, which it seems the mages here do, but it seems to take a lot more power than they use for me to do it. I'd rather not waste the energy. I don't have the luxury of doing it that way any longer."

The wind from the lake was blowing his hair all around his face like a wild stallion's mane. I very much want to find out what it would feel like to run my fingers through those long silky stands and . . . and why did I think his long golden hair should actually be black? Where did _that_ thought come from?

"Right now, I'm going back to my hotel room and taking a cold bath. Tell the Council I won't be going anywhere for a while."

"I'll at least walk you there."

"Thank you, Prince Sunstrider," I told him bluntly, "but the reason for the cold shower is you. I think I need to be out of your presence for a bit until I can clear my head."

I gave him a very measuring stare, still liking what I saw, probably more than was good for both of us. "I would very much like to follow up on what just happened between us, but we've only just met and neither of us is comfortable enough with the other at the moment. And if we ever do, I'd prefer it to be somewhere people won't just walk in on us."

Leaving him standing there, I turned and lost myself among the buildings.

Line Break

And so, after some cautious exchanges in various public and semi-public places, Kael helped me gain a teacher. Unfortunately, it was one whom I immediately butted heads with as she tried to cope with my "undisciplined shamanistic techniques." It didn't help I couldn't read a word of their language without spending hours pouring over it. English in a different alphabet was almost as difficult as one completely foreign. She generally spent a good part of my lesson complaining about having to explain standard principles to someone who "should be studying with a basic grammar school teacher, not wasting my valuable time."

After the third day of that, sometime in the midmorning when I was grumpy and somewhere between sleepy and hungry, I flared my shields into the visible spectrum and told her if she didn't want to learn just what I was capable of she should start running right then. Just to get the point across, I starting building an energy ball between my hands. She left, hastily. Then Kael walked in as though my flare of temper had summoned him and perhaps it had.

I reabsorbed the ball of energy, chi, funky special effects, call it what you will and smiled in frustration. He was, at least, so much better to look at than the fussy woman I'd been trying to study under, but I was annoyed, coming down from the start of one of my 'I'm really going to kill you' rages. Thank the gods for Lexapro; I'd have left her a little pile of ash without it. Magick was a lot easier to grab here than where I'm from, which was a line of thought I really needed to follow up on . . .

"Kael, where can we go to blow things up?"

He looked startled, which was kind of endearing, and something I seemed to do to him whenever we met.

"Where is a place I can cut loose on harmless bits of landscape? Or not so harmless somethings?"

"There's a shielded dueling area in the Citadel."

"No, no. Not when I'm like this." I sighed and summoned my staff across the room, it was just so damn ease to do it here . . . going home was going to be stifling. "No duels. I'd kill someone. Walk with me? It's better if I can find someway to burn this off by not burning someone up and moving helps."

He nodded and took a point on my right, falling into step with me. "If you're going to keep using my intimate name, Lady Blaze, I'd be pleased if you'd share yours with me."

So I told him.

"That's a Quel'dorei name," he said after a few moments.

"I know. I've found reference to it in several places connected with Azeroth." I didn't tell him it had come up on the name generator for blood elves, much to my great surprise. "I've been looking for your kin back home for most of my life, but if they're still there in any numbers, they've been able to remain hidden very well."

I was taking the shortest way to the lake, straight down to the docks and my shields were still flaring enough to scatter the commoners.

"You've still never said just where that is -?

"Are you familiar with the concepts of parallel universes and other worlds, Kael'thas?"

"Yes," he said cautiously after giving me a measuring look of his own. Softly, just pitched for my ears, he asked, "Are you a Bronze?"

I laughed. "Oh, gods, no. I'm not a dragon. I'm human. Maybe some kinship with you or your kind, but if there is, it's way, 'way back in time for a human."

"Not some long lost princess of Faerie, then?" he asked.

I laughed again delighted he knew the terminology. "Oh, fuck no. Maybe, just maybe something like a long lost warrior-mage. Or I might just be crazy." I looked at him sidelong. "There's always that possibility. Except you seem to think I'm here as well. I'm not putting you down to hallucination just yet."

"Where are we going?" he asked, turning the subject to less esoteric matters while he mulled that one over. Or maybe shared the information with the rest of the Council, I wasn't sure that was beyond them.

"To where I portaled in at. I want to check on it. Let you see it, if you haven't already been there."

"We've been . . . observing it," he admitted. I liked how he never quite admitted anything about his affiliation, but just got things done. Had he lost that ability after the Sunwell? Or rather, would he? I wished I could just take him home with me now and to hell with the timeline…

It was a long, pleasant walk along the beach, the wind off the water cooling rather than fierce and fridge. Kael was keeping up a gentle interrogation about all sorts of seeming random things as we walked. I probed back, both of us aware of what we were doing and I, at least, enjoying it, enjoying the time we could be away from the city and just learn about one another.

"Do you ever wear dresses?" he asked at one point.

"Sometimes," I admitted. "But they really aren't very practical most of the time. I'm always sitting on the floor or getting jumped on by my pets or running or something. And they're cold. I get sick too easily to wear something I'm going to catch a chill in."

"Thus explaining the long sleeves and high necks, I see." His gaze was faintly wistful

"If you'd like to see me in something else, you'll have to invite me on a date," I told him.

Before he came up with an answer, we reached my portal and the Kirin Tor's observation point. At least the people working there had the grace to look guilty when they saw me. I could have done without the scared, which was how most of them also looked at me, but at least I'd walked off my fury long before I'd gotten here.

"Okay, everyone," I raised my voice as I walked into their camp. "Kindly back away from the portal and give me room to work."

There was a 'bampf!' of displaced air as Antonidas and Jaina arrived.

"Ah, I was wondering if anyone else would be joining us." I was holding my staff one-handed, but cross-body for deflection if too many more of them showed up. Kael seemed a bit undecided as to where he was standing in this possible faceoff, which I found interesting. Didn't have time to ponder, but it was interesting.

"'This is it,' as I believe you would say it," said the Head of the Council.

"Fair enough." I grounded my staff. "So what parts don't you want too many others to see?"

"Probably all of it," he said. So I waited while the underlings cleared out. Kael was carefully not looking at Jaina and Jaina was staring at me with clear curiosity.

"Fancy?" I asked, "Or fast and dirty?"

All of them seemed confused, so I did it the slow and elaborate way, which is slow, and elaborate, and very ceremonial, and takes a lot less energy to do, but doesn't work for shit if you have something breathing down your neck, like demons, no time for fancy when dealing with demons. I allowed myself an evil grin in my mind; no, not the way I deal with demons.

First I summoned the rest of my working gear, laid everything out, and started up a running commentary for Jaina and the two men. "Now if I was being really fully elaborate, I'd have mediated and taken a purifying bath, but we'll just skip ahead a bit and assume that's been done. I'm fairly certain the three of you know what steps you can or can't do without up until Robing. So …"

I settled my cloak-robe around me and as I did the wind picked up off the lake. Portal magicks of the type I was invoking seem to play hob with the weather. And I wasn't even going to open it wide enough to do more than send a message. Robe buttoned, hood down, hair free and loose. Good. Pewter bracers clasped at wrists, necklace, earrings, rings. Yes. I lit the candle, poured the water. Paced a circle thrice widdershins which had them all watching me nervously as I invoked the four quarters and spirit. "Let nothing evil or of ill intent disrupt our workings here," I intoned, finishing the casting.

It was very, very quite within the circle.

"Spirits who would pass on, hear me. If you look around you, you will see a door, outlined in light . . . "

The three Kirin Tor mages stayed very, very quite and very, very motionless while I asked the spirits of the dead for help opening the portal. Just a quick message to my circle, to let them know I was safe and well, then I thanked the spirits, opened the door to _their_ portal for the ones who couldn't quite find it, and thanked the guardians of the quarters for their protection. "Go now to your own places and let there be no ill will between me and thee."

I didn't dismiss the circle completely; I'd be using to go home again soon enough.

Antonidas and Jaina 'ported out immediately without even waiting to say anything to me. Kael remained, watching me repack my supplies. I was tired and hungry and thirsty and it was a good long walk back to the city. I was not amused, but I hadn't really expected much. I'd just set the Council on its ear with a ceremony any witch could do or anyone who'd read Katherine Kurtz. Or, at least I assumed any witch could do it, I didn't know many to ask. Well, maybe not the talking with spirits part, or the portal, but even that I wasn't certain about. It all seemed to be a matter of what you thought you could do… Having a ley line the size of a city bus to tap didn't hurt either.

"So," I said to him when I was finished, "any possibility you can portal us back to Dalaran? Or do we have to walk?"

"I believe we owe you that much," he said, his eyes still having an inward 'I need to be working on this' distraction that might also have been the explanation for Antonidas and Jaina's hasty departure. I recognized it from writing, that need to get away from everyone and get things onto paper or digital as fast as I could type.

He cast and I watched him, feeling energies swirl and coalesce, but not grasping how it all was hung together. Storm might have, probably would have, understood, but he wasn't here. 'Send the one who blows things up to play diplomat – ha!' But the real point of my being here was winning Kael's trust and my partner hadn't wanted to volunteer for that, not unless it was the only way we stood to get close to the quel'dorei prince.

The portal opened on a room in Dalaran I'd seen hundreds, maybe thousands of times but never actually stood in. Kael entwined his fingers with mine and gently pulled me through.

He took me back to my inn, found me a table near the stove and turned to the attentive waitresses. "Any thing she wants, on my tab," he ordered and I added my immediate wants before they had time to scatter for the obligatory iced water and silverware ceremonies all waiters must be trained to perform.

"I have to go now," he said and I could hear the regret mingle with the almost frenetic need to be doing/making something that was an underlying hum to everything about him just then. "Three days," he said, "I have things I can't put off any longer, but, if you can stay, meet me at the seventh hour after noon at my apartment? It's in the Violet Citadel."

"I'll be there and I'll be alright. Go, answer their summons or return to your experiments. I'll see you in three days."

"I'll send directions . . ." and he was gone, leaving me to my supper and more than a few jealous or envious stares from the wait staff.

LINE BREAK

And so, three nights later I was walking up the steps of the Violet Citadel, wondering if I was just walking straight into a trap like an idiot. More stairs, up to the level of the portals. The one I wanted was on the right, but as I turned toward it, an unfamiliar but half-expected voice demanded, "What're _you_ doing here?"

It was the portal guardian to the Caverns of Time.

"Hopefully getting laid," I shot back to her. I felt my shields snap fully into place, but they didn't flare, not yet. "Let's not scare the normals, shall we, Zidormi?"

And I stepped through the portal to the Purple Parlor.

I expected her or one of her kin to follow. Or already be waiting for me, but instead the butler, Alfred – someone had to be a Batman fan – waved me over to another portal, one not normally visible to guests. I stepped through it and came out in a tiny entry room with only one door.

A little uncertain, I knocked. The door opened slowly, releasing the smells of incense and honey-wax. He opened it completely and I felt my body tighten pleasantly at the sight of him, absolutely golden and perfect, in the purples he was born to, though they looked like they might slide off at any moment, definitely not formal robes by anyone's imagination, unless that imagination ran to bishie boys in flimsy nothings and 'way too much hair. And very little else.

He offered me his hand, brilliant eyes on mine, his smile one to break hearts and make celibate paladins forget their vows. "You're right on time," he said. "I can't tell you how much I've been looking forward to this."


	2. Dinner Conversation

**Second Chances**

By Rillan macDhai

Inspired by "The Art of Seduction, by Kael'thas Sunstrider" by PennyForTheGuy, but it's gone running off after the little animals…. Plot bunnies?

Copywrite 2010 by Rillan macDhai except for the parts owned by PennyForTheGuy and Blizzard. Yadda, yadda, yadda, all the stuff I mentioned in the first chapter…

I'm not up on all the lore, so I might make some terrible gaffes, Please _Do_ Poke me about them by leaving reviews.

* * *

Part Two: Dinner Conversation

"You're right on time. I can't tell you how much I've been looking forward to this." He took my hand and brushed a kiss across it.

Such a charmer, you'd almost believe he hadn't used that line before, but he looked so good I didn't really care. It was my personal belief I'd gotten as far as I had with him by keeping him off balance. Hit him with enough difference to be puzzling, throw in being able to talk magick with him, and it brought his curiosity forward. It kept him from retreating behind the haughtiness he could throw up as reflexively as I threw my shields and for many of the same reasons. Doing it here, in this situation, when he was so comfortable with both the location and the pattern was going to get tricky.

"You look amazing tonight," I told him, which I suspected he'd heard before as well, but sometimes the truth is just the truth. The truth was he looked better than me. At best I've been told I have a great smile and beautiful eyes. He could have been a model for Michelangelo for an elven version of 'David.' Shame the sculptors in Silvermoon hadn't had the nerve to show him in the nude instead of those concealing robes.

The magisters would probably have had coronaries …

Not that Kael's robes were being particularly concealing tonight . . .

I had on my best clothes, nothing compared to the style of his, and certainly not as revealing, though they were tight enough to show hints of my body without showing skin. I was not in a dress or a skirt, but I'd found a tailor who could do amazing things. We'd had a short argument about the pant legs, long versus short, but since I was the one with the money, I'd won. And my tailor had actually come around to see what I was trying for at the end. I had my Fleet blues again or at least, an elegant approximation of them.

His room was lit with dozens of tapers, but while it showed luxurious high elven flair in its furnishings, it still reminded me of an efficiency apartment crossed with a high-end hotel room. What kept it from looking totally staged like a Better Homes and Gardens photo shoot was the towel I could just see puddled on the floor of his bathroom. And what made it uniquely his was the perch near the circular sofa-bed-giant floor pillow and the tiny, flickering flame creature there that fluttered occasionally and made rude, but charming noises.

"A phoenix hatchling," I said, delighted to see one up close. Then, without thinking, I added, "Is that Al'ar?"

"Yes," he said softly, in an odd voice, and I realized I'd slipped up. He'd never mentioned the phoenix in our conversations. I looked back at him

"How did you know, Lady Blaze?" he asked and his eyes were guarded, wary, through he did shut the door without other signs of concern.

I sighed. All my sins come home to roost, eventually. "The same way I knew who you were when we met. If it wasn't clear before this, I've been watching you for a long time, Kael'thas Sunstrider."

I'd had a dream the night before about this meeting. In it Kael was beautiful and sweetly attentive and low-key amorous, but it had also been clear he had a certain scenario in his head, something involving inexperienced young female mages, which was both amusing and frustrating. I 'd eaten his chocolates, making idle conversation about how our days had gone since we'd seen each other last, wondering if there was a glass of milk to be had anywhere in his suite And wondering if the man I'd set my sights on actually had a brain in his poor wee head; no doubt a result of my reading too much fanfiction online. But the planning and thought he'd put into trying to seduce me gave me hope. Though much of the dream sequence had been precise on layout and even how Kael would be dressed, it was clear my brain had been freewheeling. And his hair was very decidedly not black.

Why was that such an annoying, persistent detail? His hair had never, ever been black - as far as I knew . . . I wondered what the game designers would have told me about it, if I ever managed to talk to them. Or dug far enough back into game lore . . .

Which wasn't the problem right now

Not when he was looking at me like I might suddenly sprout a dozen knives and come after him. "I'm not from here, Kael. I'm not playing your game of council or faction politics, other than to keep the Bronzes content enough they don't pluck me out of this timeline. None of what I'm trying to do aimed at harming anyone here, especially not you or your people."

He relaxed again, but slowly. "If you know about Al'ar, your spy network is disturbingly well-entrenched."

"Not spies," I told him. "What spies there are in Dalaran are none of mine, don't let the Council take it into their heads to purge your servants. Or any of theirs, for that matter. And honestly, do you think I really need spies? I've been here for maybe a month, what conclusions have you come to about me?"

"Other than that you came here via a very small manifestation of a greater portal which is maybe closed currently but definitely still there? Very little."

He gave me an annoyed glare as though I were being a particularly aggravating puzzle instead of a potential date. Actually, I thought it might be an improvement.

He continued, "You have nothing of demonic magicks about you, but beyond that? You fight with sword and dagger with a certain amount of skill. You have a large amount of gold you seem to have arrived with here. And you talk to ghosts. You re-opened the portal apparently by some type of necromancy we've never seen before . . . seemingly by doing nothing more than asking for aid. And then you let it shut again. If it had been anyone but Antonidas and myself there, you'd be in a cell in the Violet Hold right now."

"Maybe," I said mildly. "I was standing right next to my Gate after all. And yet, you asked me to your room anyway."

"That choice had and has nothing to do with the Council," he snapped and hissed breath out between his teeth. "And now I've ruined the entire evening. I'm sorry."

"No, don't be sorry and you haven't ruined the evening. I'm not so easily put off as that. Besides, you have every right to be frustrated. I haven't been particularly helpful or forthcoming about why I'm here."

"Why are you here then?" he asked, reminding me why the phoenix is considered a bird of prey in some cultures.

"To meet you and to find teachers and allies," I told him bluntly.

Ah, yes, that startled him.

"Me?" A moment of disbelief was replaced by acceptance. He nodded, somewhat reluctantly, "You've known about the Council since, I would guess, since well before you arrived here?"

I nodded in return. "Are you familiar with the book, **The Guardians of Tirisfal**?" I asked. Kael turned an interesting shade of cream, so I continued. "The story reads a bit differently back home. Shall we order dinner and I'll spin you a story, Prince of Silvermoon?"

"Yes, let's do that," he said. "I believe I could use a drink. Would you care for one?."


	3. Dinner Conversation, continued

**Second Chances**

By Rillan macDhai

Inspired by "The Art of Seduction, by Kael'thas Sunstrider" by PennyForTheGuy

Copywrite 2010 by Rillan macDhai except what belongs to WoW/Blizzard and PennyForTheGuy. New stuff, Alternate Universe, real world references, and, yes, finally some Smut. It's really mild though, so don't get too happy.

I'm still not up on all the lore, though I'm researching in WoWwiki. I'll probably make some terrible gaffes, Please _Do_ Poke me about them by leaving reviews, don't just assume it's AU silliness, even though this was just going to be an excuse to play with all that long hair…

* * *

Part Three: Dinner Conversation, continued

"Yes, let's do that," Kael'thas said. "I believe I could use a drink. Would you care for one?"

"Yes, please."

I went to stand beside him, watching him pour the wine, puzzling out the label. "Cenarion?"

"It should go well with whatever you decide to order." He handed me a menu, which blessedly translated itself into English for me.

"Oh, there's a spell I'd love to learn," I said.

"You constantly surprise me with what you _don't_ know," Kael said with an edge of the usual haunter he so often used like a sword on anyone around him, handling me my glass.

"I told you I'm self-taught. I didn't have to use books I couldn't read, and I didn't have easy access to the odder ones anyway. I did to ones written in my own language. Picking the useful information out of them, now that was the trick. And of course, some of it was useful, but not something I have any real talent for doing. Healing, for example. I know enough to heal a bad sunburn and I might be able to close a minor wound, but the amount of energy I waste trying to do it is prohibitive."

Kael had all of his attention focused on me again. I was amazed the air between us didn't simply ignite or the furniture proposition him.

I went hunting a floor pillow, deliberately keeping my eyes off him and putting space between us.

"How would you do that?" he asked, trying to sound only mildly interested; his clothing choice for the evening gave the lie to that. Al'ar had fluttered off his … her … perch and alighted on Kael's shoulder, nibbling at his hair like a slightly overlarge parakeet.

I showed him partly as I explained, concentrating until I could feel the energy gathered around my fingers, "Summon up a handy energy ball, then feed it into the cells, encouraging them to grow faster until the damaged area is sloughed off. I can picture how skin cells grow, but I don't really know what I'm telling them. My biggest worry is I won't be able to tell them to slow down again once the healing is done. My partner is much better at it than I am, but he hasn't been able to explain it in a way I can understand yet. And neither one of us is anything like a specialist."

I took a generous sip of my wine, sucking breath across the mouthful to let the fumes better do their work. I could taste why Kael had chosen it – ah, the simple enjoyment of getting to sample some of the odd foods my toons dined on in game. Of course, some of it was just as bad as the name implied, but that wasn't something I had to worry about tonight. Nor did I need to worry about where I was, even though it was somewhere well inside the Violet Citadel, or at least, I didn't need to worry quite as much. I was probably safer now than at anytime since I'd stepped through the portal into Azeroth. I could not imagine Kael responding well to any one trying to molest me here. Except perhaps, himself. Of course, he'd fixed on the one thing we truly didn't need to be discussing.

"Partner?" asked Kael, shadows in his eyes.

This was definitely being one of _those_ evenings. Jaina had not a clue the depths of what she'd discarded or the damage she'd done.

"Partner. Shieldmate. Second-in-command. Designated driver, not that that will make any sense to you… part of my Circle. The one I can trust to run things when I'm not there or if I don't make it back."

"Ah," he said and took a fairly hefty slug of his own drink. And we muddled through ordering dinner without further eruptions.

"You had started a story," he said, after our side of dinner prep had been sent out by the mages' equivalent of dialing room service. He dropped with the boneless grace of a cat onto his daybed, Al'ar launching into the air with an annoyed cry. The tiny firebird circled the room before returning to its perch. Kael watched the creature settle, then turned his attention back to me in the completely focused way of his, resting his chin on back of his hands

"A story, yes." I settled onto the pillow and began, "Imagine a world where no one taught the humans magick or very little, or where it was violently suppressed, where elves and dragons, if they still exist there, are and have been in hiding for centuries of human time. A world where the humans' tendencies toward building things crossed with the gnomes and goblins knack for making things that explode… my world, where magick is the province of the self-taught, the mad, the artists and writers. Where the Church of the Light has splintered into myriad different reflections and distortions of itself, science and rational thought rule and where no one believes the fires on the horizon are anything more than heat mirages….

". . . They are the locusts of the multiverse in whatever form they take, the killers, the sterilizers of worlds. Marvel Comics refers to it/him/them as Galactus. Fred Saberhagen called them Berserkers. The Golden Fleet referred to them simply as 'The Enemy.' Here on Azeroth, you call them the Burning Legion.

"Whether they are drawn by arcane magick or simply life itself, or whether they hunt the starborn in particular, they do hunger and hunt, and eventually all living worlds are challenged. The ones that defy them, which turn them back, those are the ones they particularly covet.

"Against them, sometimes a single Guardian fights what is usually a shadow war; sometimes the fighters come as starships of the threatened worlds or groups of mages and other heroes unite to stand against them . . .

* * *

I spun my story out across the evening while Kael listened in rapt silence, his brilliant eyes always watching me, even when we broke for dinner. I'd probably talked for forty-five minutes to an hour before the food arrived. The first glass of wine was long gone.

The food, however, was well worth the time taken for its preparation. Eating it let my voice recover from the history lesson in story form I'd been spinning for Kael. It let me relax again, partly. Of how much what concerned his own world he already knew, he gave no indication, but I'd spoken mainly of my own, trying to only drawn comparisons when it was necessary to explain a point.

"Why tell me this?" he asked over dessert. "Why not ask for an audience with the Six? Presuming, of course, you aren't just storytelling to pass the evening? Or is this your way of asking?"

"No. I neither want to anger the Bronze Flight nor end up with an intimate tour of the Violet Hold nor a situation where I'll have to kill someone to keep my freedom. We're supposed to be on the same side, even if it truly is worlds' apart. And because I _am_ a storyteller, when I don't have to be anything else, this let's me leave it to you to decide what is real and what is an illusion. Besides, other than Antonidas, Jaina, and maybe Rhonin, I suspect the rest would demand proof I can't give them, other than by simply being here. And Jaina and Rhonin aren't on the Council."

"Krasus might believe you."

"That would simply tie the vote and it's a risk I'm not willing to take."

"None of which explains why you decided to trust me and not Antonidas."

"You're younger and better looking?"

That broke the tension, Kael laughed. "Better looking, I'll grant you." He quirked an eyebrow at me, head tilted, "But few give trust outside their own race, Lady Blaze. Why come to a prince of the quel'dorei?"

"Distant kinship, perhaps. Despite this body I'm stuck in, I remember the Golden Fleet. I remember who I was, enough to know the body I wore then was far more like your people's than the humans." It wasn't all of the truth, but it was a part of it, as most of my words this evening had been. "It doesn't mean Dana's children are any less stubborn, or pig-headed, or set in their ways than humans, but that's why I came to you and didn't seek out your father. You've lived among humans, you have a certain amount of tolerance and maybe even fondness for the frenetic pace they, we, live at."

"It would seem you are considerably more than just a storyteller," he replied, mulling over what I'd told him. "So," he gestured broadly, "now what? More story?"

"Now I'd just like to be with you, if that's alright."

I'd surprised him again.

And the heat, the interest, was still there in his gaze. This time when I met his eyes and the rush hit me I didn't fight it. I wanted to be in his arms.

"Kael'thas, is there somewhere I might hang my jacket?"

Of course there was and he was gracefully helpful in getting me out of it. I just kept the momentum going and ended up with an arm around him, pressed against his chest. He met my eyes with a startled 'whatthe' expression. I pushed up on tiptoes and kissed him, using my free hand to pull his head down to mine. There was a moment of resistance, then he opened his mouth and we tasted each other for the first time since the strange wave of desire had swept over both of us the day I'd first met him.

"I'm going to take all sorts of liberties with you tonight," I told him when we finally had to stop for air. His eyes were definitely glowing and I hadn't been the only one letting my hands explore. One was still on the back of my neck; the other cupped my ass and pulled me close.

"I think I'd like that very much," he said, his voice husky. He scooped me into his arms and carried me carefully to his bed. I pulled him down with me and we kissed again, wrapped as tightly around each other as we could be with clothes still on. I found the skin just below his ears was amazingly sensitive and that his touch and smell made my body tighten deliciously. Eventually he worked a hand under my blouse, across the skin of my belly and brushed up to cup one of my breasts, thumb playing across my hardened nipple as he gentle kneaded. His kisses made everything tighten and I wanted his hand somewhere else.

Capturing his fingers, I pulled his hand lower, down below the waistband of my pants and panties, to the fur around my sex. He stroked me, while we still kissed, and I arched into his touch, spreading myself that he might more easily explore.

"Trell?" he asked, shivering with want, but holding himself back. His eyes were the most brilliant blue I'd ever seen.

"Yours, yes. Tonight I'm yours, lover. And you are mine as well." I pushed his hand further down, further in, and arched against it once more.

He gave a little gasp before I caught his mouth again. I freed my hand and stroked him through his silks, feeling him harden more at my touch.  
"I've wanted to see these fall off you all night," I whispered.

He chuckled warmly and kissed my neck. "I believe I can answer that wish."

Leaving me with one last caress that left me twitching and wanting more, he sat up and shrugged himself out of his robe, letting it spill around his waist. Leaning back over me he asked, "Better?"

"Getting there," I told him.

He started buttoning my blouse, stopping occasionally for kisses. His chest was smooth and firmly muscled, but it was all lean, as I'd have expected of a gymnast or a swordsman. He was certainly neither paunchy nor frail and he knew exactly what he was doing. It was a long, slow, gentle night of lovemaking, Kael willing to forego his own pleasure until he was sure he'd brought me at least once. I think we were both surprised with each other, in a very good way.

"What are you doing tomorrow?" I asked, as we finally started considering sleep.

"Making love with you," he said, voice relaxed and content, as I'd never heard it before. A gentle hand stroked my hair. "I feel I might never leave my bed again."

"Not even to see my home?"

He propped himself up on an elbow. "Seriously?"

"As long as the main portal remains open, you're easily powerful enough to teleport back."

"I've seen how quickly you can close that," he said, but he didn't sound terribly concerned.

"Time doesn't run the same between our worlds, you'll need at least a couple of days clear to be on the safe side."

"Not a problem," he said. "I made sure nothing would need my attention for at least a week. So, are you kidnapping me? Or introducing me to your parents?"

"Something like that," I said and didn't elaborate on which, if either, I meant.

Kael chuckled again and rolled on top of me. "You're making assumptions about me, Trell."

"Assumptions? Mmmm, that you're secretly a sex addict? I think that's a safe one."

We laughed together, his hair a curtain around us as he lowered himself to kiss me again.

* * *

It was mid-morning before we untangled ourselves from the sheets, made love in the shower, and finally got breakfast and dressed. I'd brought my usual workout gear and Kael dressed for riding.

"Indulge me in a fantasy, lover?" I asked.

"I thought I'd been doing that," he said.

"Mmm, yes, but this is a little more specific."

"What then?"

"Can you change your hair color?"

"Change it? Why?"

"Because you are very distinctive-looking, Kael."

"Yes," he said. "And this is a problem, _why?_ Unless you _are _planning on kidnapping me."

"Actually, it's because I'd rather not have anyone else who might consider trying that know you're out riding with me today."

His eyes turned thoughtful, and he finally nodded. "I can see your point. What color then?"

"Black." It had been haunting me, I wanted to see why.

"Black," he said and stiffened, something in his eyes, then gone. Sighing, he acquiesced, "For you I'll do black."

He walked back into his bathroom, rattling around with something.

I shared a long stare with Al'ar.

Remember the scene in **Howl's Moving Castle**, where Sophie's cleaned up the bathroom? When Kael came back out, he had exactly Howl's expression on his face, his hair was soaking wet and all of it was black. All of it that I could see, anyway.

He carefully shaped the long feelers of his eyebrows and lashes, shaking water or dye off his fingers with an annoyed gesture.

He was not pleased. But I could see the potential. Black added a maturity to his features, brought out the jewel color of his eyes. He was no longer just bishie beautiful. Now he was truly handsome and much more dangerous-looking, and not all of it was from his annoyance.

"If you think for one minute you aren't the hottest stud in Dalaran, I'll make you eat your pillow," I told him.

"What?"

"Come on, lover, the day's wasting." I pulled him out the door before he could protest more or start fussing with his hair.

Kael took us directly to the stables, where, with only a slight amount of confusion engendered by his new appearance, the youngsters working there quickly brought us a pair of mares, quel'dorei greys tacked out in what for Kael were probably painfully plain Kirin Tor colors.

"You _do_ ride?" he asked

"Horses," I said. "I'm not sure if these are the same, though they look like they'd have the same gaits."

"These are much like horses, just mind the horns. Have you ever ridden a war horse?"

"No, though I think the dressage moves were adapted from war horse training."

"And you know how to ride in that style?"

"Only the barest introduction." I thought about how to explain the differences between English and Western riding styles, and actually had a useful thought, "The style I ride was developed for herding free-ranging cattle."

"You might provoke some odd movements then, but you should be able to stay on. Leave the reins mostly loose."

A few more quick tips, adjustments of the length of stirrups and the girth and we mounted. The Dalaran saddles were more like Aussies' than either the hunt seat or western styles I was more familiar with, but it was a comfortable fit. My mare had a smooth, quick walk and an easy, gliding pace. She seemed pleasantly tolerant of me as well.

We stopped at the Legerdemain and I ran inside to collect the last of my gear and pay whatever I still owed on the room. Kael stayed with the mares.

* * *

There was a gnome in my room, a little pink-haired cheerful gnome in my room. In fact, it was only little cheerful pink-haired gnome I didn't want to murder on sight. I believe it helped that I knew she wasn't actually a gnome.

I took a deep breath and greeted her. "Hello Chromie."

"Hello again. Or haven't we met yet?"

"I've met you online," I told her. "This is the first time we've met in the 'real world' from my point of view. At least," I eyed her, wondering, "at least with you looking like this."

"Oh, yes, you're one of the Guardians from _that_ world." She gave me an innocent, big-eyed gnome face.

"Chromie, please, don't exceed my cute and fluffy limit. I know why you do it, but my job sucks right now too and too much cute will not help me get it done."

"Aw, well, since we're friends . . . Why do you think you're here this time?"

Damn bronze flight and time. I hate mucking with time.

"Certain people are going to die here. I'm recruiting."

She grinned. "If you don't have a body, they're half-way to Acapulco by now," she quoted from another game I used to play.

"Actually, I'm trying for central Pennsylvania and a few other places."

"Ten thousand elves suddenly appearing in one place would be kind of noticeable," she agreed.

"Not if I do it on a football weekend," I countered. "But we both know I'll be lucky to get a fraction of that number."

"You're going to be straining the timelines," she said, her cheerful voice turned more serious.

"Look, they die and a lot of the bodies are disintegrated by the blast or just never found. Never raised, either," I emphasized. "And the legends in my world say they're coming back. We need them back, Chromie. We don't have enough teachers or enough time in my world. Let Quel'Thalas be a lot emptier, Arthas will never know the difference."

"And the two major players, what of them?"

"I'm taking them once the events they must be here for are done. You know better than I do how hard I had to search to find this timeline. Out of all the times and ways they die, one choice for a different ending to their stories. The only one where my Kael doesn't have to be at the Sunwell."

"And it doesn't matter that you're already half in love with them?"

"You know the answer to that too." I answered, bitterness and despair rising unexpectedly.

"I don't and I don't want to know. Just, would I have even found this place, if I didn't love it and them? Maybe it'll end the same way for them, just in my world, not here. But at least they'll have a chance to redeem themselves, if it's possible. And my world will have a chance to survive. And isn't that what the timelines are? Myriad different changes, choices, pathways, maybe love, maybe life, all too much death and the ending of worlds. That's why you're a pink-haired gnome and most of the mage-gifted on my world are insane."

"Sometimes you see too far, my friend."

"I know. That's why I write. And why I take my happy pills every day."

She hugged me. In another timeline or a thousand or a million times a million I might die or be mind-wiped or … I hugged her back. In this one, it seemed I'd get my chance


	4. Beyond the Spirit Gate

**Second Chances**

By Rillan macDhai

Inspired by "The Art of Seduction, by Kael'thas Sunstrider" by PennyForTheGuy

Copywrite 2010 by Rillan macDhai. New stuff, Alternate Universe, real world references, and, yes, finally some Smut. It's really mild though, so don't get too happy.

I also found out Kael isn't the only Blood Mage with verdant spheres…. At least there's one other in the card game….

I'm still not up on all the lore, though I'm researching in WoWwiki. I'll probably make some terrible gaffes, Please _Do_ Poke me about them by leaving reviews, don't just assume it's AU silliness, even though this was just going to be an excuse to play with all that long hair…

LINE BREAK

Part Four: Beyond the Spirit Gate

Kael lifted eyebrows at me when I'd come out carrying my backpack and staff.

"Your 'friends' are going to be thoroughly agitated if you actually come home with me. I'd rather they didn't root around in my stuff more than they've done already."

"I think any one foolish enough to try 'rooting around' with any of your items would be lucky to escape with their hands intact. You seem to have a fondness for fire magicks."

"Probably why I like you, Phoenix."

I touched my mare and she did a beautiful side pass or whatever the right dressage' term is for moving sideways while also moving forward. Her gaits were silken smooth.

Kael caught up with me quickly. "Phoenix?"

"It suits you. Besides, if we're going to be traipsing across the countryside with you in disguise, I can't go around calling you by name."

I found I wasn't really in any hurry to get to the Gate. Part of it was the joy of riding again; part was just wanting to be with Kael. If what I was working on failed, this might be the last day I'd ever spend with him.  
That thought hurt more than I'd expected it would …

Eventually, we did arrive at the Kirin Tor's guard and research post. The researchers scattered like startled birds when I swept in among them, having already been calling ghosts, asking for their aid under my breath as we'd gotten near the gate.

I swung down, talking to my mare, thanking her for the ride. I wasn't sure how much intelligence was in her dark eyes, but it never hurts to be polite.

Shouldering my backpack, I turned my attention to the portal, doing the fast and dirty opening with the help of the ghosts and the power I had stored in my staff. Researchers _and_ guards retreated further as the portal irised open and stabilized. Kael had stopped and was just staring at me, his eyes wide. I thanked the ghosts, felt their departure like the rush of wings overhead, and stood looking at Kael until he joined me at the event horizon.

"Coming with me, lover?" I asked.

"Oh yes," he said, eyes bright with excitement and curiosity. There was a crack of displaced air as several mages 'ported in, but Kael had already taken my hand. I caught a glimpse of the wicked grin he gave someone just as we stepped _elsewhere_ . . .

Line Break

"Possible company incoming," I yelled.

"Hello to you too, Lady Blaze," said one of my circle, bringing up a trank gun and sighting on the portal. "What's coming?"

"Maybe some angry mages, maybe troops," I said. Kael still held my hand and I pulled us out of Storm's line of fire. We'd moved our operations outside to give us more fighting room if necessary. I hoped we wouldn't need to use it today.

I made quick introductions. "Storm, Zephyn, 'Dria, Rowan, Gilliam and Gandanor. Prince Kael'thas Sunstrider."

No one followed us through the Gate, but that could change at any moment. I led Kael a bit further away from the portal to where he could see our valley. While the quel'dorei might not be in touch with the land in the manner of night elves, I knew he was far more sensitive to energy flows than either night elves or myself or most of my team. Not that I knew any night elves.

"Well? What do you think?"

"The land is raw. You've done nothing with the natural flows of power here; Quel'Thalas must have been like this when my ancestors first landed. And the one you call Storm was not particularly happy to see me with you."

"None of us are as secure as we would like to pretend we are. I wish I could show you more, but time flows faster in Azeroth than here. I have to get you back."

"You're not coming with me, are you?" he asked as we returned to the Gate.

"Only far enough to know you're back to Dalaran safely. I stayed as long as I could this time, but I promise I will return, lover."

"Trell." He sighed, then pulled me to him, ignoring the rest of my Circle, letting his dark hair make a curtain over us as he kissed me. "Apparently it's not my destiny to have any luck with women," he said wryly. "I will miss you, but I know you have your world to protect, Guardian."

He stepped though the portal, but I followed on his heels.

Mages and troops had gathered in considerable numbers while we'd been gone and the day had grown late. Catching Kael's arm with one hand, I threw a force wall between the Dalaran forces and us. "Stay!" I ordered them, the warning in my voice enough to stop both Kael and the mages of Dalaran for the moment.

I pulled him around to me and saw his eyes flash in anger, but not before I saw the pain in his eyes he used the anger to hide. "I promised you, Kael'thas, my phoenix, I will return to you. I do not give my word lightly.

"Yes, I'm a Guardian. Only on my world, we didn't stuff all that power into one person. There's a lot more than just me, at least I think there are. We don't communicate with each other very well.

"And I suspect we work at cross-purposes to each other on occasion, just as you can have two sects actually serving the Light, but have their practices be so alien to one another each suspects the other of serving the enemy instead.

"What I do know is that if there are still elves in my world, they've hidden themselves damn well. And while I think some of them are still around, hidden in my world's version of Quel'Thalas, maybe; I can't find them. But I found you and I love you, Kael. So, I'm making this offer to you and your people that I can't find either, if you ever need a place to escape or help or just a friendly ear." I handed him the sheathed and intricately wired-in and sealed dagger.

He turned the sheath over, looking at the inscription wound around it. "What does it say?"

"That's for you to find out, lover."

"Not helpful," he pouted.

"It will be. One last thing, never trust the naga, Kael. Never, ever trust them."

"What? What naga?"

"You'll know when it's time."

It was too much like those scenes when the train pulls out with the lovers still shouting to one another. I stepped backward and through, just letting the portal snap shut. Leaving him there, knowing I couldn't be at his side to face what was coming, hurt too much to do anything else.

"Is it done?" they asked in chorus.

I raided the cooler they had set up and slumped into the grass, draining a bottle of Gatoraid before I answered. "He has the dagger. I just pray he actually uses it."

Line break

(interlude: All the Way to Heaven, Melissa Etheridge) 'All the way to Heaven, is heaven, caught between the spirit and the dust, all the way to Heaven is heaven deep inside of us ….'

Line Break

After the Destruction of the SunwellSilverpine-Arathi Border/Ruins of Dalaran—the DungeonsKael'thas

She'd told him not to trust the naga. She hadn't said the only other option for himself and his troops would be death or worse, undeath. Given a choice between risking the naga's aid and serving Arthas, there was no choice.

And Vashj had dealt fairly with him. The crazy, criminally bigoted human general he was serving under? Oh, no. First giving the sin'dorei a support deployment when they would have fought, then, when they'd managed to succeed at that and finally had clear foes approaching, stripping them of their own support troops. Hatred for non-humans or not, Grand Marshal Garithos had deliberately endangered a flank of his own army. The man should have been stripped of his rank and thrown into what remained of Dalaran's dungeons.

Instead, it was Kael'thas, his officers and his troops who were scattered throughout the ruined city's prison system. They would leave it only to be executed, unless some miracle occurred.

Kael didn't believe in miracles.

There was very little he believed in any more.

Kael was alone, in what used to be the Violet Hold, the blue arcane walls of his cell a painful reminder of everything lost. Trying to distract himself, he began cataloging what assets remained to him. He had his verdant spheres, three, currently inert. He had his clothes, his boots and gloves, and a very tattered battle cloak. The Sunstrider ring said to have been passed down from Dath'Remar himself. A table, a chair, and a cot, all built into the cell. A rudimentary toilet, which blessedly still worked. His personal store of mana, enough to keep his head clear, not really enough for anything else.

Absently, not really expecting to find anything his jailors had missed, he began undressing, carefully stroking and folding the fabric, finding some comfort in making a neat pile. He was down to his normal, unenchanted clothing when his fingers found unexpected solidity in an inner pocket.

It was the dagger Trell had left him, still bound and wired into its inscribed sheathe.

Sitting down on the tabletop, he crossed his legs and began undoing the bindings. He'd puzzled over the inscription many times; he found it painfully appropriate that he'd misplaced the weapon once he'd finally learned a dialect which might have translated it.

Perhaps it had hidden itself as weapons of power were said to do in the ballads; he had certainly thought it lost in the ruins of Quel'Thalas.

He released the silver wire and broke the wax sealing the blade. "'Draw me only when all else has ended for the Children of the Sun, and the Gateway shall be found,'" he read. "I would say, this is probably as close to the end of everything as I care to get."

He drew the blade, cutting his hand in the process for the dagger had been reluctant to leave its shelter. Blood arced out, both his and more which had either been stored with the blade or produced by the weapon. There was a crack as the arcane magick of his prison tried to suppress the magicks within the blade, but Trell's blue-green binding symbol blazed in the air as the blood turned to fire, burning a hole through the blue walls and flashing out of sight. Kael would have followed but the arcane prison was not so easily overcome and the blue filled in again rapidly. The hole the symbol had made had been too small to escape through, as it was perhaps only a teleport cast at just that instant would have freed him.

"Too bad I didn't know you'd be powerful enough to do that much," Kael told the weapon. He could feel the magicks fading from the dagger and simply drew upon what was left, bolstering his own mana. It felt for a moment as if he were in Trell's embrace, startling a shaky sob from him before he fiercely clamped down on his emotions.

Perhaps those of his people who were still free would find their way to his lover's promised sanctuary. Perhaps even his troops would be released, maybe even his officers . . . if he were willing to make the sacrifice.

The humans in their frequent warring with one another, had developed a tradition of the king or commander of the losing side taking responsibility for the actions of the whole, accepting execution or their own blade as blood price for their failure. As the last prince of the high elves, it was the final gift he could give his people. Perhaps it would save his troops from Garithos' misguided vengeance. Trell's blade was sharp enough to shave with and sacrifice and suicide had always been the province of officers and nobility. It appealed to Kael's own self-destructive nature too strongly. And he simply didn't want to give the Grand Marshal the satisfaction.

But first he was determined to leave a message, for Jaina and Trell and any other who might want to know what had truly happened. It was a use of his mana that would leave him drained, but the consequence of that wouldn't matter with what he planned. Drawing the wire straight, he cut it at an angle and wrapped it in cloth, then pierced his hand for an improvised inkwell.

Using the desk as his tablet, he began to write –

Line Break

Trell

I could faintly see Kael beyond the shifting blue walls of arcane magick. He knew we were there, even if he didn't know who we were. "Where are the controls, Jailor Kassan?"

The man looked at me and looked away. There are times when the fact that I can't read minds is probably a benefit to us all. This was not one of them. "Warden, I know you and Kael'thas were friends or at least on decent terms with one another. You know this isn't right. Help me get this done and there will be fewer unnecessary deaths tonight."

_Like yours_, I thought, watching the man's eyes. He still said nothing, but he was looking over my shoulder. "Somewhere here," I pointed the area out to my people while still watching him and saw the very faint nod he gave me, done more with his eyes than any true motion.

I gave him the injection myself. "It will make you sleep. Gods grant you'll wake up again in the morning and live to be an old man with many grandchildren." At least one innocent would have a chance to survive this night.

"Take care of him, Lady, he's not . . ."

I wondered what Kael was not. Not well? Not himself? Not sane? At the very least, exceedingly _not_ happy? I knew the Alliance turning on him was a breaking point, and hoped I was prepared enough. "Take down that damn wall," I ordered. "We're likely to have company at any moment."

_Where were Vashj and her naga_?

Then the wall came down and I had more immediate concerns.

Kael had the spell dagger I'd given him and his verdant spheres. I didn't know if they'd been inactive until the moment the wall caging him came down or if they'd simply been something no one could get away from him. Whatever the case, he came out of the cell with no intention of ever going back in, drawing mana recklessly, shields flaring as they snapped audibly into place. "Felomir ashal!"

The flamestrike roared and whooshed as Zephyn's hastily flung shield deflected it from us.

Kael's hair was black as coal dust, hair, eyebrows, and lashes, all of it, his robes black with only a faint edging of gold. All of it billowed in the hot wind of his own making, swirling like a firestorm about to hit flashpoint. And he was bleeding from his arm and hand.

"Kael, don't blow us up. We're getting you and your people out of here."

"Sela - You – Trell?" He sounded totally amazed and desperate. "You did come. Do you know where my people are?"

"Here somewhere. We have to hurry, the naga are looking for you too."

"They helped me when the Alliance abandoned us," he said, but he wasn't wasting time. He'd know this place, before the Scourge and the Legion had come. There were more cells in another area or had been. We found Kael's men there, but we found naga as well, though not Lady Vashj and her elites. Trank guns and regular, along with shock batons, arrows, and blades cleared our way. The night was lit with muzzle flashes and fire, loud with shots and screams. A group of naga blocked our path, but Kael managed something that either stunned them or put them to sleep . . . And we were running across the ruined fields outside of Dalaran, to the portal home.

Kael was lagging, looking back. "We're so few, Trell. I can't just leave them," he said.

"I know, but those not with us will make it out with Vashj. One of your blood mage officers is going to give himself a promotion and by the time she learns the difference, she'll have to go along with it. Differences and memory lapses will be put down to your level of stress."* Thank the gods you made your hair black again, no one's seriously giving chase to us."

"Stress? Ah, that's an interesting way of putting it." He laughed harshly. "I've seen troops tonight I thought were lost forever. Did you bring them back, Lady Blaze?"

I knew what he meant. "No, Kael, I don't raise the dead. I got them out of Quel'Thalas and Silvermoon during the invasion, saved the ones I could."

"Why didn't you come then?" he asked, like a child might.

"I couldn't get close to you," I told him as much of the truth as I could. He'd figure out the rest of it eventually. "Come, love, it's time to go home."

He shook his now dark head. "Nothing of my homeland remains, but ash and sorrow."**

"I told you, if you ever needed a place to escape or help or just a friendly ear, I'd be there for you. Come home with me, Kael. You need a place to be safe again."

He gave a long shaky sigh and laced his fingers with mine.

"Wherever we're together, that's my home." ***

Together we stepped through the portal, a rush of the land's unfettered ghosts coming with us.

Line break

* found a use for Kael's doppleganger from the card game. He makes the perfect excuse for timeline continuity, some of Kael's odd behavior and I didn't even have to invent him! Amazing.

** quote is from Warcraft III, according to WoWwiki

*** quote from "You're My Home," from the albums Piano Man & The Essential Billy Joel by Billy Joel


	5. Presents From Myself

Ah, the problems that arise from starting something without having read all the background info. Thankfully, a twist of real world fate led me to discover Veranis Bitterstar, who from the artwork, looked enough like Kael'thas Sunstrider to be his twin … so, since rulers and other famous people have used stand ins for themselves in this world, why not think the peoples of Azeroth would not have used the practice as well?

7/2/10 conceived and written… This is drabble, meaning its a rough rough draft and will probably get significant changes. And its out of sequence, but at least the gist of it is done. And I'm fairly sure this one has definitely crossed the line into alternate universe territory...

* * *

The Black Temple, Outland

"This arrived for you, my Prince," said one of his sin'dorei, bowing low and offering a wrapped green package, narrow, but of some length.

"Who is it from?" the tall elf with the spun gold hair asked, regarding the brightly colored box suspiciously. It almost looked like a Winter's Veil present.

"From yourself, sire."

"From myself?" the prince looked confused for a moment, then said, "Oh, yes, of course, _that_ package." He took it, albeit a bit gingerly from his servant. It was surprisingly heavy. "Thank you, you may go now."

Raising his voice minorly, he added, "You may _all_ go now."

Only when his retinue had left the room did the golden blonde elf put the box back down. Moving quickly, he made sure the door was locked, before throwing another series of wards over his suite.

"Well, then," he murmured, "Just what did "I" send myself?"

He recognized the seal, made with the ring of Dath'remar, the ring he didn't wear.

He broke the seal with a sharp nail, a fatalistic smile playing across his lips. Inside the box were several items. One appeared to be Felo'melorn, the reforged elven blade of his father and his father before him, back to Dath'remar Sunstrider and possibly even before him. One looked like the ring he'd been contemplating his lack thereof. One was an odd boxy item he'd never seen before, with a small yellow note attached to it. All of them were nestled in some type of odd spongelike material the elf had also never seen before.

The note read: _Clear the room; ward it if you haven't already. Make yourself comfortable, I'd suggested sitting down. Press the button labeled 'play'_. The Thalassian character for 'K' was the only signature.

The golden hair elf shrugged and found a floor pillow, dropping cross-legged onto it. He pushed the button, and a smooth black panel on the item suddenly became a moving picture of another room, one from which a black haired, dark clad version of himself seemed to watch him. Watch him with eyes, which like the now fel-eyed elf's had been until recently, of brilliant jewel-bright blue.

"Greetings, Veranis," said his other self. "You have done more for me and more for our people than you can begin to know. I give you the recognition and honor Father never did. You are my brother, my almost-twin, and to you I abdicate my claim on the throne. I am, for all purposes that matter in Azeroth or Outland, dead."

The image gave a wry twist of his lips. "Though I'm not, nor am I undead, have no fear of that, brother, I will not be returning to haunt you after this brief message. Nor to trouble your rule, if you survive to return to Silvermoon. I simple cannot return from where I am now, you have taken my place and I do not truly begrudge you any of it, Veranis, only in that I cannot attempt to avenge our people directly any longer. Though it vexes me to turn aside from vengeance, I have another duty to perform to ensure our people's survival." Those bright blue eyes met his across the screen. "I have sent you, if not exactly the heirlooms they appear to be, items that will help cement your rule and Flamestrike will at least add your chances of survival as well. One last gift lies under the sword, you may have found it already, if not, handle the orb carefully for it contains as much of my memories and skills as I can share with you. You were well trained, I would give you what extra edge I can and knowledge you were not in a position to learn. And I wish you luck, my brother.

"I regret I was never allowed to know you more than in passing. Veranis Sunstrider, may the sun shine bright upon you. Know that the sin'dorei will never forget you in this odd realm in which I now find myself. And, should fate be kinder to the sin'dorei than it has lately been, strike down the law that kept us from being family to one another. We are too few to let those traditions control us any more. Let any children you have be known to you and to each other. It will not solve all the problems of our way of pairing nobility, but it will be much fairer to the children."

The figure in the screen gave him one more wry smile, "I'm afraid, brother, that's as much as I have time or liberty to share, though by now perhaps you have tired of my words. Remember the Sunwell, brother, and if you will, this shadowed phoenix who wishes you well with all his heart."

The screen went black again. The voice was silent.

With a shaky sigh, the elf set aside the videoplayer and drew Flamestrike carefully out of its foam nest. Beneath where the blade had rested, an oblong of white foam was inset into the grey of the rest of the material, ensuring the item below would not have been overlooked.

He plucked the foam aside and carefully studied the iridescent orb nestled within the revealed cavity. "And so, I truly become you, brother. I wonder if any of myself will remain? For the sin'dorei then, and for Anasterian. And for you, brother, for knowing Veranis Bitterstar did exist, if only in service to the realm. I wish you well, good fortune and long life, as the draenai would say. And thank you for this gift that may let me continue this masquerade." With no further hesitation, he scooped the orb from its resting spot and began remembering the life that now was his.

* * *

Sometime later, Kael'thas Sunstrider, Flamestrike now belted at his side and his ancestral ring gracing a finger, strode confidently through the Black Temple to an audience with Illidan Stormrage, his mind playing with the idea that even the Lord of Outland might find that spot just between his shoulder blades and those remarkable wings could be unbearable itchy.


	6. Arrival Complications

**Second Chances**

By Rillan macDhai

Inspired by "The Art of Seduction, by Kael'thas Sunstrider" by PennyForTheGuy

Copywrite 2010 by Rillan macDhai. Moved to M for smut, violence and weirdness. Guy/Girl & Guy/Guy pairing. Alternate Universe, real world references, and assorted strangeness. Trell and her Circle and Kael'thas and his sin'dorei troops and those saved from Silvermoon deal with modern medicine, both chemical and magickal, grief counseling, and hypotheticals. And several surprises for Kael.

Please, I don't bite reviewers and I'm working into some seriously out of the canon areas, please leave comments.

All the usual, don't own Blizzard's stuff, etc. and I'm still writing faster than I'm researching - This is a bit of drabbles as I'm currently recovering from some surgery near one of my eyes. Wanted to get something posted….but there are gaps in the continuity… took forever to get a section done big enough to be worth posting…. Oh, and the name Myron has come up persistently when I've done random male blood elf name generation, so I finally decided to use it somewhere, ;-D

File 6 in the series….

* * *

Part Four: Far and Away, Section 1

Benner Township/ Pennsylvania/USA

Trell

Kael and I stepped into another scene of chaos, but this was a far happier one than what we'd just left, even with triage happening barely beyond a good flamebolt's range of the Gate. A tremendous cheer went up when we were seen, "Lady Blaze! Prince Kael'thas! Our Prince has returned to us! For Silvermoon!"

I felt rather like a rock star. Kael seemed a bit overwhelmed with the raw emotion of his people though I assumed he was at least a bit familiar with such reactions.

"My lady, if I could trouble you for a bit of help?" he said, leaning into my hair. "I cut a little too deeply for someone who was rescued."

I turned to him in shock; I'd know he was injured when we'd rescued him from his cell, but he'd not slowed down for anything. Now he was chalky pale under the halogens and I could see the slow drip of blood from his right hand. I immediately willed energy into him and saw some of the pain around his eyes lessen.

"One quick bit of show for my people, and then I'm going to need a healer, beloved."

"You need one now," I hissed at him, but he'd already done something to amplify his voice.

"I give my thanks for my rescue and that of my troops to Lady Blaze and her people and pledge our swords and magick in her service. Obey her as you would me."

He looked like he would have dropped to his knees, but I steadied him, feeding power into him and earning a grateful smile. "You have a knack for understanding me," he said.

"I know a little about royalty and dramatic gestures," I said. I saw Storm at the edge of my vision and beckoned him to us.

"Chiya, are you all right?" he asked.

"I'm fine, but Kael is hurt."

"Appearances," said my prince. He brushed my throat with his uninjured hand. "Speak up and everyone will hear you now."

"This is not a time for speeches," I said to my people and the sin'dorei, letting Kael's magick work through me. "We have injured. Now is a time for the healers and medics to do their jobs. Give them what aid you can. For those of you who know me already, please speak to your brave troops, and find your kinfolk, brothers and sisters, friends and those are alone and let them know what has happened. Let no one stand alone this night and let all know you are safe and welcome here. And if Prince Kael'thas' officers could join us in about an hour, along with the civilian council, we'll have a meeting shortly."

Storm had taken Kael's arm and was slicing away his jacket sleeve. "Oh, that's not good," he said as a wicked cut running from elbow to wrist was revealed. At least the blood wasn't pouring out of it, though it was dripping steadily. Grabbing one of my hands, he said, "Put pressure here, and don't let up."

"I guess my heart wasn't really in it," said Kael, inspecting the wound, his eyes taking on a glazed detachment that frightened me.

"You did that to yourself?"

"They were going to execute us all," Kael continued in that distant voice. "I wasn't going to give that bastard the satisfaction of naming the moment of my death. His officers would have forced him to release my troops, perhaps my officers in the face of my suicide. Otherwise, he'd have had rebellion on his hands."

He smiled at me. "Of course, you arrived just after I cut my arm."

"Kael, you self-destructive idiot, I told you I'd come." I brushed a kiss onto his arm, picturing tiny cells multiplying, knitting together, but I couldn't hold the image.

Storm touched my face, "Just feed me the power, love, I'll do the rest."

"Recent experiences had led me to doubt humans, Trell. I should have believed in you."

"Just don't die on me."

"I won't, I have my family and my people to avenge."

"You have the living ones to protect, don't lose sight of that," I scolded him gently.

He sighed and shivered as Storm's healing began to take effect. "I promise, my Lady, that – Myron? Healer Myron Everbright?" He added more in a rush of Thalassian that I couldn't follow, but was evidently aimed at an older sin'dorei who joined us, gently adding his skill to Storm's less focused power.

The wound closed. That, apparently, was enough for Kael; he said something neither Storm nor I could understand, pointing back into the triage area. The healer protested, but his prince was having none of it. "Enough. Go! I'm not dying any longer."

"Stubborn," growled the healer, but he obeyed, which gave me heart that Kael's assessment of his own condition was true. "He'll need blood and fluids, since he won't let me finish. Lord Stormbringer, I'll trust you'll see he receives them."

"Yes, Master Myron," Storm replied. "Trell, let's get His Royalness installed wherever you're putting him. I think the master bedroom would be the best choice."

* * *

We held the meeting in the bedroom and spilled out onto the deck, Kael interested in the proceedings but obviously tired. In truth, it was mostly for show, to let the officers and other officials who hadn't been in on the rescue ascertain it was truly their prince whom I'd brought home. I wondered how Bitterstar was doing with his troops and Lady Vashj. I could not wish him ill, if not for him, Kael might have been lost to us, to me, forever. Storm kept things short, with the Master Healer's orders backing him and we herded them out to spread the word and rejoin lost comrades.

Kael had fallen asleep. I kissed him gently and left Al'ar to guard him after warning the phoenix not to pick at the IV tubing. My own personal kingdom needed checked before I could return to watch the sin'dorei prince, but two of my household guard and two of the sin'dorei warmages were posted at both of the entrances to the room.

They were still there, undisturbed by anything when I returned and Al'ar was perched on the bed above Kael's head, his master still asleep, the IV feeding properly. I pulled over a comfortable chair, reached into my stack of reports and began reading, glancing up occasionally when my Phoenix shifted or made some small noise.

Storm came by sometime later, carrying a blanket and cups of tea for both of us. Leaning against my legs, while he sat on the floor, he asked, "So, do you think we'll pull off getting the other one now?"

"I think our chances just got a lot better."

* * *

Kael'thas

The tall, slender human Trell had identified as Storm was standing in the doorway, watching him with an expression that was hard to define, something between an abstract inspection of his body, a healer's interest in a patient and a bright spark of jealousy. "It's always easier for us when the other's lovers are never encountered," he said, walking into the room. "What a pity you aren't a woman, but she hardly ever gets interested in women."

Kael blinked. That hadn't been quite what he expected.

Storm tapped at the transparent bag hanging from the metal pole. The red fluid – blood, Kael had concluded – contained within was almost entirely drained. There was a persistent beeping coming from the machine it was connected to, a beeping that had been becoming increasingly worrisome, considering that the other end of the intricate tubing seemed to be attached to Kael's other arm, the one he hadn't sliced open with the blade Trell had given him.

"You're looking a lot better," said the human, who at the moment was doing something with the buttons on the machine. The beeping stopped. "How do you feel?"

"Better," the prince admitted, "but very confused."

"Trying to understand an Adept, especially her? She's a law unto herself, let's leave it at that."

"You're her mate," Kael said. "I don't intend to intrude between you."

"No. She's my partner, not my mate. I don't expect monogamy; she doesn't expect it of me. It's just easier when I don't have to admit you exist." He did something with a clip and the tubing, appearing to clamp it off. "I'm going to take the IV out now."

"And that's one of the other confusing things," Kael continued. "I'm assuming you mean the tube in my arm?"

Storm gave him a nod. "IV for intravenous. It let us give you enough blood to replace what you'd lost. You also got a bag of saline; salt water, since that's what blood mostly is made of. Your arm is going to be sore as hell, but between Myron and I, we undid your knifework. There shouldn't be any nerve damage and you shouldn't be feeling light-headed now."

He took a fat fuzzy white ball from a bottle and placed it over the spot where the tubing – or was that something metal? – disappeared under the skin on the back of Kael's left hand. "Okay, almost ready, oh, there's your bird."

A rapping sounded at what Kael remembered from the night before as some kind of transparent door. A woman in a brilliantly blue uniform slid the door sideways and Al'ar flew into the room and landed on the headboard, chattering excitedly. "Ah, my friend," said the sin'dorei prince and the firebird hopped down onto his shoulder, continuing its excited commentary, before seizing a lock of Kael's hair and beginning to nibble it delicately.

Storm had taken advantage of his patient's distraction to remove the IV needle and was putting his gear away. "Can you sit up?" he asked.

"I believe so, if Al'ar will move."

The tall, thin human pulled an odd length of black cloth from under the bed somewhere and wrapped it around Kael's upper arm. "This," he said, altogether too cheerfully, "is a blood pressure cuff, hold still and try not to move. And relax."

"You are enjoying this far too much," said Kael, somewhere between annoyance and amusement at the other's hostility.

"Glad you understand," Storm said, giving the bulb attached to the black cloth several squeezes that tightened the band around Kael arm to a painful level. His strong fingers also pressed the sin'dorei prince's wrist while the elf's fingers tingled. The pressure slowly released and Kael was actually able to feel the blood flow being restored to his hand. "One twenty-one over seventy-eight. Perfect.

"Well, you should be fine. Just don't do any heavy lifting with that arm for about a week. The bathroom's through that door, there are switches on the wall to turn on and off the lights. Everything else should be relatively familiar to you. Towels are in there and supplies are in the cabinet over the sink or the tall one opposite the toilet. Clean clothes are in the dresser over there," he pointed to a spot on the wall to Kael's left. "Or in the closet. Someone will be by to get this bed and the other equipment out of here, so you should have a real bed by this evening." Storm made a face at the thought, clearly displeased with where his mind had taken him.

"Trell should be here shortly to take you to breakfast or bring it to you, whichever she's doing. I'll probably see you later today. If you need anything before she gets here, there are guards posted at both doors."


	7. Flash Forward: Illidan

**Second Chances: Illidan Stormrage**

By Rillan macDhai

Jumping forward to a Tremendously AU Version of what happened just before the Black Temple final boss fight

Rough draft started 6/19/10

* * *

The Gate opened.

"Zephyn, we're going to need all the shields you can give us."

I looked to my dark Phoenix, Kael. "Are you still sure you want to do this? You're likely to be his first individual target."

Kael'thas chuckled, "Now's a fine time to ask, lover. Besides, he seemed more comfortable with me. I'm just hoping Bitterstar* didn't muck things up too badly." With an unconscious flick of his black and gold cape to settle it just right, he stepped through the portal.

"Kael! Damnit!" I followed hard on his heels.

"Well, Kael'thas," said a deep angry voice, "I trust you have some sort of explanation for – ah, I see you do. Hello, Guardian, come to try to put an end to me as well?"

There were many things I could have said. "Put Kael down," was one of them, for the Lord of Outland had the prince of the sin'dorei in a Darth Vader grip, only Zephyn's and his own shields keeping wicked talons from his flesh. Instead, faced with the one who had become known as the Betrayer, my first thought was what I blurted out, "Oh, Il'an, what have they done to you?"

Illidan Stormrage flinched as though struck. "I know your voice, I know you . . . but I don't remember . . ."

"Trell," I supplied. "A very long time ago even for you."

He stiffened, head cocked to one side and sniffed the air suddenly, surely tasting my scent along with the smells I'd brought with me from home even through the sulfur and other volcanic gases of Shadowmoon Valley if only because his nose would long ago have gone numb to their stench. "In Suramar . . . just before . . . " His face suddenly became animate with the intense curiosity I remembered, along with what might have been hope. He turned his attention to my partner. "Phoenix? Kael'thas? Which one are you?"

"Both," said Kael, still concentrating on keeping Illidan's talons out of his chest. "But not the Kael'thas Sunstrider you've known, that was my brother masquerading as me."

"I wondered, when he didn't remember meeting me before, but he'd been badly injured, I put it down to that." Illidan set Phoenix carefully on the rooftop. "So. You said you would return, but it's certainly taken you long enough. What is it you want? I'm expecting more company soon, so we may have to make this reunion rather short."

He still stroked Kael's hair, my sin'dorei phoenix leaning into the touch as though they had never been parted.

"A night elven sorcerer and demon hunter," I said and Kael nodded and said something softly to Il'an.

A very slight smile touched the demon-elf's thin lips and just for a moment I could see him, as he'd been when we'd first met. "There's always a catch to these things, what's yours?"

"We can't take you home with us as you are now."

"Ah, that might be a bit of a problem, I don't think Maiev will willingly give up even my spirit, though she is just one of those who think they have claim to it."

"Maiev will be lucky if enough of _her_ spirit remains to limp home to Kalimdor if she crosses paths with me today," I promised letting my distaste for Il'an's persistent jailor fully color my words. "Her hunting ends today, one way or another."

"Yes, I rather think that's likely too," Il'an said, his head turning to study a spot across the rooftop. "So, what price are you asking of me?"

"That, save one, you will probably find hardest to pay," Phoenix said.

"Give up the Skull of Gul'dan and most, if not all, of your demonic powers," I told him.

"Ah," he said, going back to his thoughtful, head-cocked contemplation. He didn't immediately refuse. I was willing to count that as a small victory. He was still playing with Phoenix's hair, which might have been another or just a familiar habit he'd picked up during his time with Bitterstar. I wished Kael wasn't standing so close to him, but there was a point at which fear had to be replaced with trust. I wasn't sure we'd reached it though.

"Assuming that would even be possible, what do you offer in return?"

I really hadn't expected him to be so calm, given his overall personality and the damage done him in the recent past. Of course, the Lord of Outland could become violent without warning and quite likely would.

"Sanctuary, friendship, perhaps even love, and ultimately a chance to fight again to protect a world, one where you'll be known as a hero. You've sought power for a long time, Il'an. It has not treated you well."

"And if I say no?" His voice still remained mild. I was expecting an explosion at any moment.

"We wish you luck and we go home."

That was not the answer he'd been expecting.

Kael's following words weren't what either of us had expected, either.

"No," said Phoenix. "You'll go home, Trell. I'll be staying here."

"Kael, you can't—"

"Yes!" That was spoken with as much command and certainty as anything he'd ever said to me. "Yes, I can. Veranis Bitterstar's death isn't recorded anywhere. If a bloodmage chooses to fight beside Illidan Stormrage at the Black Temple, it ultimately will make no difference to the timeline. In this world, Kael'thas Sunstrider is already at Tempest Keep. Trell, where this shadowed phoenix goes doesn't matter now, it's why I could come here with you in the first place. You'll have the sin'dorei mages, you don't need me any longer."

"Kael, my phoenix, I will always need you," I told him. We might not be soulbound, but it didn't mean I didn't love him

"I believe I still have some say in this matter," Il'an said, sounding mildly annoyed for the first time since we'd identified ourselves. He crouched, throwing his wings out for balance, studying Kael. "You would stand beside me, even though you're certain we're both going to die today if you do? It's very clear in your voice and body language, Phoenix, but I would hear it from you."

"I would rather die here unknown than live without you any longer. Whatever use you wish to make of me, I have been yours since the first moment we touched, Il'an. However foolish that makes me to you, I don't care anymore." He knelt, dropped his shields and rested his head against Il'an's knee.

Though it tore my heart, I knew Kael spoke truth, he'd been alternately cheerful and despairing since we'd left Suramar. I would not be able to force him from Illidan's side this time. Illidan shuddered all over, then very hesitantly stroked Kael's long unbound hair. "Never kneel to me, my prince," the Lord of Outland said softly. Then with a wry twist of his mouth, he added, "No matter what I might say in the future. I've not been well since Icecrown Glacier."

"Not even for loveplay?" Kael asked, so quietly I might have imagined it.

The demon-elf gave a startled chuckle. "I have been a fool for love before this, knowing my love was not returned. Perhaps this time I can be foolish for a better reason." He pulled Phoenix into an embrace, blue-black and ash-black hair tangling in the wind that swept the rooftop. Whatever words they said or did not say were kept private by Il'an's wings and the rushing of the wind.

Then the Lord of Outland stood, his wings refolded at his back. Kael stood beside him, his sword already drawn, an expression of serenity on his face such as I had seldom seen. Il'an took a pouch from his belt, weighing it in his hands for a moment before throwing it across the roof, yelling defiantly, "I will listen to you no longer."

The pouch bounced and rolled, ultimately spilling a skull onto the rug at that end of the rooftop.

"Whatever you are going to do, Trell, do it quickly." He grimaced, one hand actually going to his forehead. "Several people are very annoyed with me at the moment, and my other guests will be arriving quite soon."

Storm and Zephyn came through the gate then, shocking a small hiss from Illidan, but Phoenix greeted them as I did and he relaxed again, even though I'd drawn Hot Claw in the meantime. Storm was casting a circle while Zephyn threw up more shields, particularly one across the access to the roof.

"Illidan Stormrage, I _know_ you," I began, adding titles and definitions, tracing fire through the air as I paced widdershins around him. He pivoted with me.

"Binder," he said, tension in his voice.

I inclined my head to his title. "That, I am."

My magick is about intuition and making things up on the fly. Touching him lightly, feeling our personal shields flare and meld and flare again off of one another, I told him as much of my Name as I knew.

"Fool!" he begin, and I knew a flash of fear, but it was he who was shivering, holding himself in check. "Foolish, Trell. I am not who I was when we met and I am not well enough, nor free enough for you to risk yourself so."

"You are still Il'an and all your memories and deeds both before and after we first met. I _know_ you," I told him fiercely and continued my litany to its end. Lightning was cracking and dropping all around the Black Temple by the time I was done. "I _know_ you," I repeated. "And this is not part of you, nor this."

I am not a mind healer and that, in part, was what Illidan desperately needed. But Hot Claw cuts through magicks as easily as flesh and I am a binder and a banisher, outside influences I could and did cut away, drawing the blade slowly along Il'an's body, forcing my vision of him against the demon taint. It was hard, burningly, painfully hard, but fire was my element and fire and Light my weapons. What Sargeras and Gul'dan and Xavius had done, I could not completely undo; I am not a Guardian like Medihv or Aegwynn, I do not have the power they commanded, being but one of many Guardians of my world. But I had Kael, who had claimed as much of what Tyrande Whisperwind might have had as he could, and through him, I had Illidan himself, finally clear-minded at least for the moment and willing to cast off some of what had warped him for the gift my beloved Phoenix had made of himself.

Kael was Illidan's; it would either save them or damn them both.

The physical changes were the hardest to undo; Storm had to lend me strength and technique for that and the demonic mutations had to be burned out on nearly a cellular level to restore his body to something like a night elf's, albeit one who'd chosen to be a demon hunter. Restoring his eyes was beyond us, too delicate a job for our ham-handed skills, even if he had lost them to natural accident. Against what had burned them out we could only do some cosmetic repairs, though hopefully those would relieve some of his pain.

Il'an fought it at last, only Phoenix's power and the tentative bond between them preventing him from fully trying to slaughter us. What we'd done to him had to be painful, that he'd tolerated so much before lashing out said something about whatever he felt for Phoenix. Or for his high pain tolerance at least.

"You have undone me, Lady," he said finally, the flames of his eyes dimmed almost to embers watching me through the blood and overall demonic gunk needing to be sluiced off his narrow face before his attention focused on a spot in the air beyond us. "And perhaps undone yourselves as well. Retribution for our daring comes swiftly."

"He's right, Trell," said Zephyn. "The ones inside are beating through my shield and something else is trying to get here as well."

"Fall back, now!" I could feel it as well; anger and a malicious wrongness strengthening like thoughts. Phoenix and Storm took Il'an through our gate in a rush, Zephyn folding shields around us until I forced him through, unraveling the portal even as I stepped through it, elemental spirits and the dead flowing through with me in a desperate attempt to avoid what was seeking Illidan Stormrage for this final affront.

I suspect Maiev and Akama and their companions had an interesting time of it with Kil'jaden. Whatever happened, we'd left enough behind to satisfy all but the demon lord that Illidan Stormrage was dead and hopefully, even he was left confused.

* * *

Song accompaniment

Melissa Etheridge, Yes I Am

Stabbing Westward, Save Yourself

*Veranis Bitterstar is referenced on WoWwiki and shown in the WoW collectible card game looking very much like Kael'thas Sunstrider, down to the verdant orbs he uses. I 'volunteered' him to be Kael's stand-in.


End file.
